M40 ET66 LW SD HELMET COMPLETE

This is a great mid war example of a regular Luftwaffe enlisted man’s helmet in factory spec as issued condition. Produced at the Eisenwerkes factory in the city of Thale this “ET” helmet is a large size 66 and will therefore fit most men’s heads of today. As is typical of ET mid-war paint finishes the outside paint texture is rather smooth to the touch leaving a very clean looking eagle with less distortion via the textured paint. The eagle is a textbook ET style eagle and actually was transposed over the first eagle which highly suggested an initial factory error or misapplication whereby the swastika or wing tips were bend out of place and therefore a second decal was added over top the first one in order to correct the error before leaving the factory. You see this with many LW decals as they were extremely fragile and delicate to work with and even German factory workers are entitle to Friday afternoon mishaps. The decal is complete and in great shape as is the corresponding liner which has that great buttery smooth look to it you only see with early to mid war liner systems. The rear lot number of 1297 strongly correlates to a production year of 1941 according to Brian Ice’s lot data book an excellent source for dating helmets. The original chinstrap which is often missing is fully intact and at full length with an early war aluminum buckle and dated “1941” with the manufacturer’s factory mark “Langefeld” at the tip.

All in all this is a rock solid example of an early produced M40 LW helmet!!!